FOXBORO -- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday that the medical staff will dictate whether Rob Gronkowski plays this week in the regular season finale against the Dolphins this weekend at Gillette Stadium. Heading into Wednesday's walk-through indoors at the Dana-Farber Field House, Belichick said Gronkowski wasn't ready yet.
"We'll see how he is," Belichick said. "He did more last week than the week before and we'll see where he's at [Wednesday and Thursday] when we go out [to practice], we'll see what he can do. We'll take it day-to-day, we'll make decisions day-to-day based on where he's at. He's moving along [but] not ready yet. We'll take it day-to-day and see how it goes."
Gronkowski broke his left forearm on Nov. 18 against the Colts and had surgery the next day. He was expected to miss 4-6 weeks and has missed five games so far with the injury.
"I think those are decisions really that are made medically," Belichick said. "If the players are able to play, then we play them. If they're not, then we don't. It's the same for every player, we treat them all the same. There's nothing more important than the player's health and safety, so when they're cleared to play, then we make playing decisions.
"If they're not cleared to play, then there's no decision to make. And I don't think that's a decision that a coach makes or influences, those are medical decisions if it's a medical situation. Once it's a competitive decision then that's a coaching decision. If it's a medical decision, then it's made by medical people."
Gronkowski returned to practice on Dec. 14 and practiced all week leading up to the Jaguars game. He was limited in all four practices and was officially "questionable" on the injury report for the San Francisco and Jacksonville games before being designated as inactive for both games.
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